


17. Dust

by rosereddawn



Series: Your Invincible Defeat [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Community: spn_30snapshots, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-19
Updated: 2013-08-19
Packaged: 2017-12-24 01:20:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/933444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosereddawn/pseuds/rosereddawn





	17. Dust

He hangs up on Singer. He’s got what he needs: an address near Midland, Texas, and the name of a hunter, his wife dead for four years just like Mary. The rest’s none but pointless preaching.

With index and middle finger, he fishes the dropping coins out of the payphone and curses when he catches a blister on the metal. The sun’s without mercy in this patch of land. His boots rise brown dust clouds as he walks around the corner back to the entrance of the gas station. There the AC blows a cool gust of air down his neck. He takes a moment to stop and rub his eyes, hands dirty and skin rough. Then he gets a can of coke to keep him awake for the drive and a bottle of Jack to help him sleep at night, and for the boys some pre-packaged sandwiches and that sugar drink Sam’s been so mad about since Dean first bought it a fortnight ago.

He’s got two sons, damn right. And he sure as hell doesn’t need a fucking lecture on how to raise them.

The clerk tallies up the sum, lazy in the late afternoon heat, and John counts the bills in his hands and throws an impatient look out the window. There they are, playing in the parking lot, in the shadow of the car.

When he comes back out with the plastic bag dangling from his hand, Dean looks up, always alert as he is, and starts collecting the toy soldiers. He says something quiet to Sam who protests, and ushers him into the car. All John’s got to do is close the door behind them.

The car creaks as he gets into his seat. The land’s been bleached by the long relentless summer and the sky stretches pale and too large over the plains. Sam’s clinging to the backrest and reaching for the bottle he sees poking out of the bag and Dean tucks him by his shirt and shushes him.

They’re his boys. And he’s their father. And that means making the world they grow up in a safer place where monsters and demons don’t dare creep in their shadow and the homes they will build one day won’t fall to ash.

He hands the kids their food and drinks and opens the can for himself and when he puts his left hand on the wheel it’s hot from the sun. He turns the key in the ignition. For a second the tires spin in the dust without grip, and then the car jumps and they’re gone, out onto the road.


End file.
